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With the meeting with the merchants finished, Alexander was soon thrust into another one, a meeting with his council member, or more specifically the now and ex-military commanders. Because it was time to discuss the imminent winter campaign for last minute checks. The members soon entered the room once the merchants left, and after making themselves comfortable and some pleasantries about Alexander's wedding and such, soon started to dive into the meat of the business. First Menes and Melodias reported the status of the army, saying how the soldiers had been prepared, that enough weapons such as arrows and pilums had been procured and food had been stockpiled. With the highlight of the report being Menes's claim that, "Since our first target is Jabeel city that's just thirty kilometers north of here, we will not need to carry any large food trains with us. Just the three-day ration each soldier carries will suffice." This reasoning was sound and hence approved by all. With the readiness of the military done, it was time for Grahtos, who had a scout cavalry squad under him, to give his reconnaissance report. "We have confirmed that a lot of the nobles who fled Zanzan are currently in Jabel and in its vicinity. Though the truly wealthy ones have taken refuse much further away, within the three Matbar's (Marquis) land." He had a regretful expression on his face that they could not catch all fishes at once. Alexander nodded hearing this, matching it with the intelligence report he got from Camius. His spymaster had in addition informed him that a lot of the nobles who had lands around the vicinity of Zanzan were hunkered down at the moment in Jabel, and this made Alexander feel like it was the perfect opportunity to strike. On previous occasions, some of his retainers had asked in a roundabout way what he intended to do with the old nobles, and Alexander usually said, "Haha, I have not been able to give you guys any land. So I must arrange it as soon as possible to not shame myself." This usually brought a smile to the one asking him this question, but it also meant Alexander had nothing for the old nobles but offering them a butcher's knife. Of course, he would eventually accept swears of fealty from nobles who chose to submit to him. But the key point being eventually- i.e- not right now. Because right now, Alexander's goal was as stated to his retainers, to expand his own controlled lands. And so these former nobles had to go. And besides, the fact that these nobles lived so close to Pasha Muazz was a subtle confirmation of how much the obese noble trusted them. And Alexander was sure of this strong fealty to their former master still remained because for those nobles that the Pasha did not trust, well, that worker girl's parents were the perfect example of what happened to them. Men like Muazz usually chose trusted men. And to confirm this Alexander had even talked to that working girl one day to know her backstory and learned a bit about a few nobles of Zanzan. And that conversion had stimulated him to trust the nobles residing around Jabel. "As for the lands east of Zanzan, that huge stretch of territory all belongs to Pasha Muazz and are overseen by various caretakers who are either shordars (Barons) or Takuldars (Viscounts). I have already given a report to the Pasha detailing who controls what there," Grahtos continued his report. Alexander nodded to this claim as he reminisced about the thick stack of paper, almost like a book that Grahtos had submitted to him. This report had been created jointly by Grahtos and Camius, with the latter being invited by Alexander after he understood that the NIA (National Intelligence Agency) and the military intelligence that was partly controlled by Grahtos had quite a bit of thing in common with this mission. Grahtos was initially certainly surprised when Alexander revealed this spy organization to him, though it was not completely unexpected because all the council members did know Camius spied for Alexander. Though that was the extent of their knowledge. So, the surprise came from seeing the organizational level of Alexander's spy network. Professional spies and spy schools where people would be taught various techniques of espionage was a no-brainer for modern times, but a completely revolutionary concept for such a primitive civilization. This spy organization and Grahtos's scouts together had managed to put quite the comprehensive report of the surrounding areas, which even served as a bedtime reading for Alexander sometimes. For example, Alexander remembered reading Jabel being described as 'a land of great greens with great value but grossly misused.' There were also a great many names, Alexander could not fully recall the exact number but it had to be at least twenty, next to which were written a lot of obscure names of land and properties that they controlled. The way the peerage system here worked was that Muazz would give a shordar (Baron) around a few villages, maybe four or five, each with a pre-war and famine population of around hundred to two hundred and maybe a small town or just a slightly larger villager, whose main feature would be the temple and a small number of artisans living there, though not all shordars (Barons) had such a town. This was the scenery that covered almost 90% of Adhania, just farming villages, fishing hamlets occasionally sprinkled with small temples. And that would be the thing most poor peasants would see in their lifetime. Which also meant the people directly looking after these peasants made up the majority of the nobility, i.e- shordars. Above the shordars (barons), Pasha Muazz like the other nobles had appointed the Talukders (Viscounts), who basically did the same thing as the shordars (barons) but on a bit grander scale. So they controlled the usual farmlands just like the barons but naturally much more of it, but also more importantly they all controlled a decent city of around 10,000 to in some abnormal cases sometimes upto 30,000 people. This city would always have a temple of Ramuh, and a proper temple at that, being able to house something equivalent to a proper priest or even a bishop, whereas a shordar (baron) would maybe have a trainee priest to take care of the day-to-day looking after of the small temple and would only be occasionally visited by a real priest from a nearby Talukerdar's (Viscount) territory, perhaps once or twice a fortnight depending on the distance and road situation. There were a few Talukders (Viscounts) mentioned around Zanzan and Alexander took notice of them, remembering their names, while largely forgetting about the large number of barons dotted around. This was mainly because Talukders (Viscounts) was the peerage from which one could realistically gather an army, as below that the low population and the poor finances made such an endeavor unrealistic. Of course, this did not mean Shordars did not fight. In fact, they fought constantly. But it was mostly against bandits, others of a similar peerage, or by joining a coalition. Because individually they would not bring soldiers to a fight, but a mob of peasants. And hence Alexander only remembered to learn the names of the Talukders (Viscounts), because these Shordars (Barons) would likely fight under them. And they would fight with their Talukders against Alexander because he also planned to attack them after taking Jabel. In fact, Jable was just a stopover. His real target was taking over the fertile lands to the east and what was the use of learning the names of nobles who would participate in the battle and soon die? Alexander presumed in his eastern campaign, only the Talukders who would direct the battle but would not participate in it would survive. And as Alexander swimmed in these thoughts, Grahtos finished reporting his scouting report, after which Alexander asked with a light smile on his face, "So how do you think we should deal with the nobles inside the city?" "If we are going to attack them, it would be better to leave no traces," Menicus in his gravelly voice gave a very frank answer very first. And was quickly joined by the usually cautious Melodias, "I agree. Since this attack would be breaking the contract, we should not leave any witnesses." The two men seemed ready to be ruthless to protect their and Zanzan's hide. "There are almost no civilians in Jabel. The nobles kicked everyone out to conserve food when they took over the city. So there are only the nobles and their slaves and servants in there" Grahtos too expressed his support of such action by assuring Alexander that there would be no innocent casualty. Alexander was happy seeing his retainer think like he was. So he began confidently, claiming, "Firstly, attacking the nobles will not be a violation of the treaty." which made his retainers ask what kind of convoluted way their lord was gonna justify that. And they were not disappointed as Alexander in a twisted way reasoned, "Because we are not attacking them for siding with Amenheraft. We are attacking them for rebelling against their higher lord- me, The Pasha of Zanzan." "....." The others only gave a wry smile at this shameless reason but certainly did not interject. So Alexander, hearing no objection finalized the decision, "Okay, then. We will raze Jabel to the ground and build a newer, better one." Alexander thus made the cruel order, before turning to his retainers to ask "All agreed?" The others naturally nodded in consent and thus in that shorter-than-an-hour meeting, Alexander's first campaign of annihilation was decided. If you are not reading this at webnovel.com, then sorry, the content you're reading is STOLEN! Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves! Please come Here! =>Link to the original site: https://www.webnovel.com/book/herald-of-steel_24388579605084705
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